EVERETT — Construction of 65 affordable housing units kicked off with a ceremony Monday.
City, county and state officials, community leaders and other guests celebrated the start of HopeWorks Station II in an afternoon groundbreaking. Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin was one of the featured speakers. So was a man who once was homeless but went through and graduated from the HopeWorks training program to now own a home.
The building along Broadway will offer housing and a training and a workforce development center. The total project is expected to cost just under $30 million and is funded by 13 different sources, including grants from the city of Everett, Snohomish County, Washington state, tax credits, and loans from social investors. It was developed in collaboration between Housing Hope and its affiliated HopeWorks Social Enterprises, five years in the making.
“This is really a collective buy-in from everyone to make a project like this happen,” Bobby Thompson, Housing Hope director of housing development, said earlier in the day.
Ed Petersen, chief strategic officer for Housing Hope, raved at Monday’s ceremony about the energy efficiency of the building. A solar farm will be incorporated as part of the design and it should produce more energy than operations will consume, he said.
The four-story building will be next door to HopeWorks Station I. Previous plans called for five stories, but one floor for commercial uses by HopeWorks Social Enterprises was removed. The 65 units of housing were not affected.
Work is expected to begin in the next few weeks, permits pending.
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